When Joe Biden stepped on the Saudi soil last month (July 2022), the U.S. president knew he would receive a low-key reception. He had no choice but to visit the oil-rich kingdom. He can’t blame anyone except himself for a declaration of war against Saudi when he was a presidential candidate. Biden declared he was going to “cancel the blank check” given by Trump to Saudi.

 

During his campaign, Sleepy Joe announced that America’s priorities in the Middle East should be set in Washington, not Riyadh. As the campaign shifted to top gear, Biden’s rhetoric included a promise to make Saudi Arabia an international “pariah” for the gruesome killing of Jamal Khashoggi, where he was butchered and his body was dismembered and disposed of.

 

Once elected, Biden suspended U.S. weapons sales to the kingdom. During his first year in office, the Commander-in-Chief refused to speak with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the de-facto leader of Saudi. Biden then released CIA’s (Central Intelligence Agency) conclusion that the crown prince had ordered the 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Khashoggi.

It didn’t take long for the world to see Washington’s ultimate hypocrisy when President Biden reversed all his promises to punish the evil crown prince. The mighty America that has been screaming till foaming at the mouth – mocking and insulting authoritarian nations like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran – was reduced to kowtow the most authoritarian nation in the Middle East.

 

The U.S. had miscalculated the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After all efforts to bring down oil prices failed, Biden reluctantly put on a brave face upon landing. A month earlier (June 2), even after the OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries, including Russia, agreed to raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, the prices of crude oil refused to go down.

 

Biden greeted the Saudi crown prince with a fist bump. It was the moment MBS had been waiting for as the kingdom’s journalists were given one simple task – snap the photos and quickly share the image around the social media to ensure everyone saw it. The fist bump was instantly criticized as shameful in the U.S. Even pro-Biden lawmakers back home have expressed their displeasure.

The 36-year-old MBS got his revenge without having to lift a finger. It was a trap from the beginning to not only humiliates the most powerful man on planet Earth, but also to legitimize the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The White House was too dumb to realize it, not that it could do anything about it as the 79-year-old Biden was too desperate for Saudi’s oil.

 

However, despite all the kowtow and fist bump, the POTUS returned home almost empty-handed. Addressing a U.S.-Arab summit in Jeddah attended by Biden, Saudi Crown Prince told the American president in his face that Saudi could only increase to 13 million from current 12 million by 2027 because the kingdom claims it has no more capacity beyond that.

 

Yes, at a time when the U.S. and Europe desperately needed help from OPEC to pump millions of barrels more to offset the threat from Russia, Saudi could only promise additional 1 million barrels. Even then it would take another 5 years till 2027 to achieve it. If even the “central bank” of global oil has limited capacity to pump more oil, how do you expect the West to win the Ukraine war against Russia?

Unlike Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi where the Saudi King Salman, despite his health problem, was waiting on the tarmac to welcome him, the highest ranked official sent to receive President Biden was Khalid bin Faisal Al-Saud – the governor of Mecca province. Trump was even given 83 gifts, including a traditional sword dance by the Saudi King, as well as a fly-by of Saudi Air Force jets.

 

But the humiliation was just the beginning for Biden. President Xi Jinping, expected to visit Saudi Arabia next week, would receive a grand welcome designed to match, if not better, given to Trump in May 2017. As strained relations between MBS and Biden continue, Saudi is preparing to show the U.S. how Beijing-Riyadh relations have grown closer over the last two decades.

 

Unlike Biden’s trip, Xi’s visit will take him to Riyadh, Jeddah and the megacity of NEOM (a pet project of MBS). Already, plans were under way to hoist thousands of Chinese banners and receive hundreds of dignitaries. Crown Prince Mohammed has already bragged how Biden’s visit reasserts Saudi’s influence in the region. He will get to boast again after Xi’s trip.

The fact that Beijing has stood up to Washington militarily in the recent Taiwan crisis after provocation by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island means Saudi was right to hedge its bet on China. Not only China is Saudi’s largest trade partner, the Chinese have become increasingly important in the region geopolitically, hence Riyadh could leverage on Beijing to extract concessions from Washington.

 

President Xi too can use the visit to Saudi to boost his popularity and grip before China’s 20th Communist Party congress in November, where he is expected to secure a third term. A more grandeur welcome than Biden could also lend credence that China has successfully flexed its muscle in the Middle East, previously the playground of the U.S. for decades.

 

The visit will be the Chinese president’s first overseas trip since the Covid-19 pandemic started in 2020. There will be dozens of economic agreements to be signed between both nations. Heck, there might even be an agreement by Saudi to sell oil to China in Yuan / Renminbi, bypassing the U.S. dollar. Saudi has expressed its interest in yuan-denominated futures contracts, known as “petroyuan”.

 

Unlike the unpredictable Saudi-US relations, which depend entirely on a new president’s policy every four or eight years, the Chinese-Saudi relations are more stable. Beijing does not seek any military role, let alone political interference in the region. The Chinese just focus on economic investments and projects, treating Saudi as a true and equal partner.

 

While the U.S. has falsely accused China for their oppressive treatment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province, Saudi – the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques – has defended China’s treatment of the Uighur’s minority. In fact, Saudi has even defended Hong Kong’s so-called draconian national security law, putting the kingdom’s foreign policy at odds with the U.S. human rights issues.

 

After being pressured by the U.S. for decades, for the first time, Saudi has a choice. The Arab world wanted to send a message that it has strategic allies other than the United States. The Ukraine war and the Taiwan crisis show the world is moving toward a “multipolar” power structure, where countries can choose either the U.S.-Europe or China-Russia or the best of both worlds.

It’s worth noting that the Saudi Crown Prince previously made a visit to China in 2019 after the Chinese president visited Saudi in 2016. During the 2016 visit, President Xi was greeted by then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad. In March this year, Saudi invited Xi to visit the kingdom, followed by a phone conversation between the Chinese leader and MBS on April 15, 2022, confirming the coming trip.

 

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August 15th, 2022 by financetwitter

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